Washington Capitals built team, expectations and now must deliver with what they have

Washington Post | Mar 7

Eric Fehr re-watched tape of the move he made in overtime Tuesday night against the Boston Bruins — taking a pass near the blue line, tapping the puck ahead to himself, splitting two defenders, then winning a game the Washington Capitals needed to win — and smiled. “A great feeling,” he said. It reminded him of someone he once knew: himself.

“That’s kind of the way I was playing when the team drafted me,” Fehr said Wednesday, almost a decade after he was drafted. “I grew up scoring goals. That’s what I did.”

In a lot of ways, Fehr represents where the Capitals are right now — trying to match expectations with results. He was in the system prior to the last lockout, the one that cost the 2004-05 season, for which the Caps prepared by trading away their best veteran players, each time wanting in return “a prospect and a pick,” as owner Ted Leonsis has said time and again in the years since. It was, the Capitals said, the right way to build a consistent winner.

Fehr, a first-round pick in 2003, was part of the building. He grew up in the Capitals system with Mike Green, with Brooks Laich, with the guys who were supposed to make up the core of the franchise then and now. The team won the Presidents’ Trophy in 2009-10, when Fehr was one of seven Capitals to score at least 20 goals.